Jorge is a software engineer who moved from Colombia to Mexico, then to the US, working his way up from small local startups to Intel, Amazon, and now Microsoft. His path was not a straight line: he had six years of experience when he got an SDE1 offer at Amazon, a level typically for new grads, and had to adapt to a completely English-speaking environment and a much larger scale of engineering than he’d ever seen. He’s now an SDE2 at Microsoft working on messaging backend services for Microsoft Teams, and is actively working toward a senior-level role.
Early Career in Mexico (2012–2015)
Jorge started his career in 2012 at a small company in Mexico City doing outsourcing work for local clients, building websites and mobile apps.
He worked at two startups during this period, one of which ran out of money after two months and stopped paying him, a typical startup experience.
He felt overconfident during these years, being treated as the most senior engineer at these small companies, which gave him a false sense of his own level.
First Big Company: Intel in Guadalajara (2015–2018)
Jorge moved to Guadalajara, Mexico and joined Intel, his first major company, which added significant value to his resume.
He joined at an entry-level position, was promoted to mid-level, but never reached senior level there.
He stayed at Intel for about three years and used that time to start interviewing at major US tech companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft.
Getting Into Amazon (2018)
Jorge received an SDE1 offer at Amazon despite having nearly six years of experience and a mid-level title at Intel.
He was initially shocked and disappointed, expecting at least an SDE2 (senior) offer, but the recruiter explained that the responsibilities matched what would be considered senior at other companies.
He accepted the offer, moved from Guadalajara to Seattle, and went through a stressful immigration and visa process that nearly prevented the move.
He left Intel before the visa was confirmed and briefly worked at another company as a backup plan.
The Reality of SDE1 With Years of Experience
Jorge describes a significant cultural shock at Amazon: it was his first time working full-time in a completely English-speaking environment, with no Spanish speakers around.
He had a Spanish-speaking mentor who helped him understand both his job responsibilities and the new work culture.
The technical challenge was also different: none of his previous companies operated at the same scale, with the same emphasis on reliability and operational excellence.
He experienced impostor syndrome, comparing himself to a brilliant American SDE1 who had joined straight from college at age 22, while Jorge was 26–28 with years of experience.
He notes that this is a common pattern: people from agencies or smaller companies with many years of experience often get non-senior offers because the scale and expectations at big tech companies are fundamentally different from anything they’ve seen before.
Moving to Microsoft (2019–Present)
After about 1.5 years at Amazon, Jorge was promoted to SDE2 and then moved to Microsoft, also as an SDE2.
He felt ready for the move because his time at Amazon had given him the context and perspective he was lacking when he first arrived in the US.
He believes the key to operating at a higher level at big tech is first gaining context on the new environment, then adapting your existing experience to that context.
Day-to-Day at Microsoft as an SDE2
Jorge works on IC3, a team that builds messaging backend services for Microsoft Teams (part of M365).
In his first six months, he spent most of his time reading code, debugging, and logging, trying to understand a codebase too large to fully grasp in a few weeks.
As he has ramped up, his days have shifted toward more meetings, code reviews, and coordination, and less hands-on coding.
He is intentionally developing the skills needed for senior level: identifying his own work, driving projects independently, and communicating ideas effectively.
He is approaching his one-year anniversary at Microsoft and is actively working toward a promotion to senior engineer.
Key Non-Coding Skill: Communication and English
Jorge identifies communication, especially in English, as the most important non-technical skill in his career.
As a non-native English speaker from Latin America, learning English was essential for working at international companies.
He notes that for software engineers who want to work at global companies, English is almost a prerequisite, with very few exceptions.
Rapid Fire
He was on call about two weeks before the conversation (mid-May) and got woken up three times, which he considered a good on-call rotation.
His first programming language was Visual Basic 6, learned in college, followed by PHP and JavaScript for web development.
The conversation is part one of a two-part series; part two, on Jorge’s channel, covers advice for reaching the senior level at big tech companies.
